Olympus recently filed a patent in Japan for a novel lens feature that shakes the front element in order to remove droplets of water.
Filters would obviously render the shaking feature useless on a DSLR system, but for a smaller compact camera designed to be waterproof and rugged, this feature would probably come in handy.
The patent also seems to indicate that the shaking would occur during autofocusing, so the lens would be cleared of water immediately before the camera exposes a shot.
What are your thoughts on this potential future feature?
Here’s a super random gift idea for photographers that have everything: a camera that’s hidden behind what appears to be a normal shirt button. The Thanko Button Camera is attached to button-up shirts using special buttons that have a hole for the lens. If you don’t have a shirt with black buttons, you’ll be happy to know that the buttons come in three different colors: black, white, and pearl. Read more…
The Flip Video camcorder has had a convenient built-in USB connector for quite some time, so why not compact cameras? Today Samsung announced the PL90, a 12.2 megapixel compact shooter that offers a convenient USB plug built into the body of the camera. Gone are the days of carrying around a separate cable or card reader, or having to have a computer with built-in card slots.
Aside from the nifty connection, the camera is pretty ordinary on other fronts. It has a 2.7 inch LCD on the back, offers 4x optical zoom, and supports 640×480 video recording at 30fps or 15fps (what? no HD?). It’ll hit the market next month at an entry-level price of $150.
We’ll likely see more and more compact cameras offering this kind of connection in the near future.
Another Nikon patent discovered recently provides yet another sneak peek at their yet-to-be-announced mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera.
This one seems to be for some sort of system that protects the inside of the camera body from dust and foreign objects when the lens is removed. It does make sense though, and I wonder why DSLR bodies don’t already do this?
It would be great if the camera automatically closed some sort of protective barrier whenever it detected that the lens was being removed. If you needed to actually see the innards of the camera, you could expose it via some option inside the menus, similar to how the sensor is exposed on DSLRs. Thoughts? Read more…
The Kata ABS-HD is a new kind of bag that starts out the size of a book, and can be inflated to become a carry-on bag for protecting full size camcorders. What’s nifty about this idea is that when not in use, the bag is extremely compact and can be stowed away with your other luggage. The bag is designed specifically for stowing expensive equipment safely in the overhead bins on planes, so the bag doesn’t come with a lot of bells and whistles.
Inflating is done with a built-in tube and takes about a minute, and the bag can be carried using either the handle or an included shoulder strap. Though the price hasn’t been announced yet, the bag should hit the market in the near future.
Well… finally! A Nikon coffee mug has finally appeared on the Internets, months after the web went crazy over Canon look-alike mugs and cups. The black 24-70mm thermos coffee cup comes with a nifty gold box and drawstring bag to carry it around in, and sets you back $23 over at 100milligrams.
Like the black 24-105mm Canon cup, this does not appear to be an official product created by Nikon. However, diehard Nikon fans probably wouldn’t care anyways.
OK Go, an LA-based rock band, makes some of the most creative music videos you’ll ever see, from the treadmill video that amassed over 50 million views on YouTube to their gigantic Rube Goldberg machine one that dropped jaws around the world. Their latest video for the song “End Love” is yet another display of pure creativity, as they blend stop motion and slow motion techniques in strange and awesome new ways.
The Spinner 360º is a new plastic camera by Lomography that lets you capture 360 degree panoramas on strips of 35mm film.
Shooting involves turning the camera on the handle, which exposes the film through a vertical slit while advancing he film at a speed that synchronizes it with what you’re capturing. You can either turn the camera by hand for longer exposure shots, or use the pullstring built into the handle.
Here are some example panoramas taken with the camera:
Eight panoramas can be captured on each roll, with the image covering even the sprocket holes. The camera is available from the Lomography store for €125.00, or about $150.
As Newsweek continues to cause its parent company to bleed money, a new magazine is trying to defy the demise of print by being agile and efficient. 48 Hour Magazine is a project that aims to “write, photograph, illustrate, design, edit, and ship a magazine in two days.”
The team of editors behind the mag include Heather Champ (former community director of Flickr) and her husband Derek Powazek. The duo were previous the founding editors of JPG Magazine so, needless to say, they know a thing or two about the business.
“Issue Zero” had the theme “hustle”, and went from an idea at noon on May 7th to a complete magazine at noon on May 9th. The team received 1,502 submissions from all around the world, including from artists and writers at well known publications such as Rolling Stone and Wired.
Forget complicated kite photography kits that actually require skill. UK-based industrial designer Matthew Clark has a fun solution for taking photographs from high up: the Aeriel Capture camera.
This concept camera has a 3 foot balloon built into the back of the camera itself, and has a 20 meter chord that doubles as the shutter release. Photographs are taken by simply flipping a switch in the hand reel.
The idea is great in that it would allow anyone to easily take some aerial shots of an event without wind or fancy aerial vehicles. The downside to the idea is that you need to have helium on hand to get it floating.
If this was on the market for a low enough price (i.e. $20), do you think it’d be a useful camera to have around?
Olympus recently filed a patent in Japan for a novel lens feature that shakes the front element in order to remove droplets of water.
As Newsweek continues to cause its parent company to bleed money, a new magazine is trying to defy the demise of print by being agile and efficient. 48 Hour Magazine is a project that aims to “write, photograph, illustrate, design, edit, and ship a magazine in two days.” 
